Improvement in boot and shoe-nails



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Meta-ww Newry' BENJ'AMiND. GODFREY, or MiLronuMAssAcHUsETTs Leners Patent No. saseadmd Fama/ry 9, i869.

IMPROVEMENT IN BODT AD VSHOIll-N'AIIILIS.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, BNJAMIN D. GODFREY, of Milford, in the county of Worcester, and State of Massachusetts, have invented a certain new and usefnl Improvement in the Manufacture of Boots and Shoes; and I do hereby declare that the following, taken in connection with the drawings which accompany and form part of this specification, is a `description of my invention sufficient to enable those skilled in the art to practise it.

My invention relates to the means of fastening soles of boots and shoes to theirl Vamps or uppers, with particular reference to such construction and application of the fastening-devices as shall more perfectly secure the sole in position, or prevent it from tearing away from the upper. y

The general means of eifecting the union of soles to varnps are well known, and consist, first, in the employment of thread-stitcheS,-passing through the vamp and upper continuously; and secondly, in the employment of series of coniining-devices, each independent of the others, these devices being either metal nails, sprigs, wooden nr equivalent pegs, metal screws, or sections of metal wire, such wire being sometimes cylindrical, sometimes prisrnatic, and sometimes screw-V formed, or made with long screw-threads, the taper of which is such that the wires, though driven in by percussion, turnas they are driven, in the samev manner as if turned into the leather by a screw-driver or equivalent instrument. l

My improvement relates wholly to devices of the secondV class, and is intended to obviate diiiiculties which arise from the use of all nails, pegs, sprigs,.

screws, and wire, (as now made and used,) whether the latter be cylindrical, polygonal'in section, or screw threaded.

In using wooden pegs, trouble always arises from the tendency of the pegs to strip or draw out from the upper and inner soles, when the wood shrinks.

In the use of nails and metal spri'gs, the objection is, that as soon as the heads of them wear of, they arel apt to press through and hurt the feet of the wearer. 4

Screws, to be turned in by arotating tool, cannot be applied with sufcient quickness to enable them to be extensivelyused in commonshoes; and as such screws are not clinched on the inside of the shoe, andas the threads are very nearly horizontal, or at right angles with the axis of the screws, and do not penetrate much into the le ther laterally, they too slip from position,

. and are pressed up into the feet; and this same objection also applies to wire, whether it be cylindrical, prismatic, (or polygonal in section,) or screw-threaded;

screw-threaded wire, when so formed as to be driven by percussion, having no means for preventing it from rotating under strain produced by wear, and not being clinched, soon working loose, and up through the inner sole Another objection to the screw-threaded wire (each piece of which forming afastening is cut from a coil of screwthreaded wire, as or just before it is driven, by mechanism connected with or forming part of the driving and feeding-meohanism,) is, that the cut ends of the wire, which appear upon the outer surface of the sole, do not make a good nish, the angles of the series of presented ends not being at all'uniformrelatively to the edge of the sole. Y

Now, to obviate all of these diliculties, and at the same time to secure or retain the advantages derived` from using screw-threaded fastenings, which may bedriven by percussion, and which will turn as driven,

(that is to say, to so make a screw-threaded blowdriven metal sole-fastener, that itcannotturn or be turned after being driven, and that it will present an end not onlylsimilar to the ends of its fellows, but

having similar anglesvof-presentation, relatively to the ,edgeof the .iinished sole )I form each fastening sepaing a slight portion of the wire, at one end or at both ends, unthreaded, so that at one end the wire remains unchanged in form, (that is to say,` has the same form and condition possessed by all the wire before the threads are cut,) and the other end is drawn. downto a point, down which point the threads may run, some thing as in a gimlet-pointed screw, so that when the fastenings are driven into a boot or shoe, to fasten the vamp and sole together, (while the boot or shoe is upon a metal-bottomed last,) the pointedends of the fastenin gs will be turned over and clinched, by contact against the last, (thus preventing subsequent rotation and consequent end movement of the fastening by wear,) and/ the outer end will be driven in'flush with the outer surface of the sole, so that such outer ends will be perfectly uniform in appearance, giving a high degree of finish to the sole. y

It is in this tapering point and plain-formed head, in combination with a shank having a screw-thread, so cut or formed as .to enable the fastening to be driven by percussion, and to cause it to turn as it is driven, that my invention consists.

In the drawing is represented a shoe, showing, in section, my improved fastening, and other forms of metal' sole-fastenings with which my invention is most nearly allied. i.

A, B, C, D, and E, show views o f the fastening enlarged, A showing the fastening embodying my improvement. a denotes the vamp,

b, the outer sole, and

@the inner sole of the shoe. p

d denotes Imy taperfpointed screw-threaded nail or fastening. l

e denotes the screw-wire, which penetrates into the sole by turning, it having a fiat screw-thread, like the threads of a common Wood-screw.

f denotes the common straight-sided shoe-nail.

g denotes the sprig-nail, having a head and point, and nicks on its sides.

7a denotes lthe screw-threaded Wire, which is driven by percussion.

At A, (which shows my invention,)f denotes the thread; k, the head; and

l, the point.

Now7 it will he obvious that by drawing down the end, l, to a point, as shown, the fastening will not only more easily penetrate and turn when driven, but that, as soonas this point strikes the metal surface of the last, said point will turnover and will clinch upon the surface of the inner sole, and thereby effectually prevent rotation of the fastening by strain upon the soles; and it will also be obvious that the finish produced on the outer surface of the sole, by using these fastenings, is free from the objection of ununiformity, inseparable from the use of unpointedand unheaded screw-threaded Wire, the appearance of the edge of a sole secured by my fastenings being that represented at F, while G- shows a portion of tue outer surface of a sole-fastened with common screwthreaded wire.

It will be understood that my fastenings are not ont from Wire as driven, as is the common serewfthreaded Wire, but are made, like common nails orsprigs, to be,

each driven separately by hand, and it is not assumed that they can be driven as speedily as can the Wire cut from a continuous coil as driven; but as each fastening is perfectly secured by clinching its point, it will readily be seen that they do not require to be driven so closely together as do the screw-threaded Wire an the other -ili-stenings, and boots and shoes may therefore be very rapidly made by hand; and, taking into account the cost of ithe screw-threaded wire-driving machines, and the cost'of running them, boots and shoes may be made nearly as cheaply, as regards the securing the soles and uppers together with my fastenings, as by using continuous.screw-threaded Wire, and a machine to outv and drive lthe same, While the work produced is every Way superior, and will command much higher prices.

I claim, for uniting the soles and uppers of boots and shoes, screw-threaded metal fastenings, each formed of round Wire, pointed at one end, and having athread extending nearly, but not quite to its oppositeI end, 

